The Golden Strawberry

As well as writing to support the principles of the Euston Manifesto, this blog seems to have had a secondary motive I neglected to tell Adam about, when I asked him a few months ago if he wanted to start a political blog.

I seem to want to spread the music of Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello at every opportunity, as well as fight for a more equal, just, nicer world. So there's no time like the present...

Some angel has uploaded a few Nick Lowe videos onto youtube. These include the video of Lowe's most famous (only) hit Cruel to be Kind, a marvellous Rockpile song, a nice poppy song My Heart Hurts and a version of Lowe's most famous song, (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? which has been covered by loads of people, including that god-awful metal supergroup A Perfect Circle. I still think Elvis Costello's version is the definitive one, but then I would. There is also a video of Lowe in his pub-rock days, looking wonderfully young fronting Brinsley Scharz. But isn't he wearing the same shirt in the "My Heart Hurts" video as well, despite the fact that they were filmed about a decade apart?

Enjoy...

-posted by Roy

...Which is chronicled here.

Bringing in 24-hour drinking. Marvellous.

Now I know the nanny state et al is not good, but surely we should not allow people the freedom to drink themselves stupid? These statistics really are shocking, if not altogether surprising, as said by one Doctor in the article:

Hospital admissions for alcoholic liver disease more than doubled in a decade, reaching 35,400 in 2004/5. Alcoholic liver disease deaths increased by 37%.

Admissions for alcoholic poisoning increased to 21,700 from 13,600 over the same 10-year period.

The Information Centre report also highlights England's binge and underage drinking problem.

Nearly one in four secondary school children aged 11-15 reported that they had drunk alcohol in the past week when surveyed in 2005.

The average amount of alcohol consumed by this age group doubled between 1990 and 2000 and currently remains at 10.4 units (or about 10 small glasses of wine or five pints of beer) per week.

Young adults are the most likely to binge drink - a third of men and a quarter of women aged 16-24 said they had drunk more than double the recommended number of units on one day of the previous week, typically Saturday, when surveyed in 2004.

Not sure what the answer is (higher taxes, possibly?) but it definitely is NOT relaxing opening hours.

-posted by Roy

Iain Dale does a great job of Fisking a dreadful article by the Independent's Mary Dejevsky.

Although this article is a particularly extreme example, it does show how far the Independent is sliding lately. Under Simon Kelner the paper has become a Daily Mail of the left, with sensationalist front pages about some crusade or other the Indie is currently on. For asylum seekers and house prices for the Mail, read Iraq and climate change for the Indie.

I will still buy the paper at uni (it's only 20p from student shops) otherwise I only buy it on Wednesday to read Mark Steel, my weekly dose of political eye candy. If Mark Steel were to stop writing his columns, I would stop buying the Indie altogether. It's easy enough to get my daily read of sport, humour and political comment from those whom I share views with from the daily blogs listed on the right.

Perhaps this is why the newspapers are all scared of blogging. If political commentators, academics, government ministers and old Joe Soap can start a blog, so people can read their stuff for free, who is going to buy a third rate piece of tosh with excruciating columnists when they can read so much great stuff for free? Which is why they take every opportunity they can to do it down.

For those who are unaware of the joys of Fisking, see here.

-posted by Roy

If you read this yesterday:

Charles Clarke's comments are making the anti-Blair lobby very excited, but surely it's not as significant as all that? Sacked mediocre ex-minister is bitter. So I'll look round for a REAL story to write about when I have the chance!

Then you have absolutely no need to read Simon Heffer's article in the Telegraph. Unless you really want to know that Charles Clarke's resignation is more Norman Lamont than Geoffrey Howe. But that's what my two lines infer anyway.

I fear I'm going round the houses a little. But my point is made.

Lots of unreadable drivel to support a very simple point? Perhaps I should become a columnist for the Telegraph, and change my name to Simon...

-posted by Roy

Apologies again for the lack of blogging recently. I have managed to find myself a job, working for the NHS. It's nothing more than photocopying and filing, but the girls in the office are fabulous, and have made me feel very welcome. It has meant, however, that I arrive home rather late feeling tired and ratty. My self-proclaimed geniality goes out of the window, and I piss off everyone in the house by snapping at them for no good reason. I've got another fifty more years of working full time! If I cannot handle two days without going over the edge, my life is in trouble.

I also haven't caught up with much of the news lately, for much the same reasons. Charles Clarke's comments are making the anti-Blair lobby very excited, but surely it's not as significant as all that? Sacked mediocre ex-minister is bitter. So I'll look round for a REAL story to write about when I have the chance!

For now, read Michael Atherton (for it is he) on Norman Geras's blog, a great merging of my sporting and political worlds. Oliver Kamm has a perceptive piece on Trident, Iain Dale asks who screwed up Britain, and David Tate links to an amusing cartoon in Harry's Place.

-posted by Roy

For those who dislike the approach of John "Psycho" Reid, here's a reminder of why his pandering to the tabloids is detestable. By Boris Johnson:

The Stagg case is a perfect example of why we should not allow ourselves to be ruled by tabloid editors. The Daily Mail's MMR panic has brought us an increase in measles, and the general panic over paedophiles has all but driven men from primary school classrooms.

It needs brave politicians to resist this kind of nonsense, and brave judges to tell the media when they are wrong.

I won't go into the problems at the Home Office in great detail. It's too late and I'm tired for a start. I also don't know very much about it. I did, however, study A-level law (I bet these credentials impress you), and did criminal law for the whole of my second year. The problem appears to be that much criminal law is crap. What legislation we have is usually ancient, and most legislation is buggered up by judges who have little experience in criminal law. Most practised in civil law, which accounts for about 95% of legal cases.

It's not the judge's fault entirely though. Politicians cannot be bothered to reform the criminal law - it's not "sexy" enough. Tightening up the law on malicious wounding doesn't win votes. The Law Commission have, however, published a draft criminal code which would codify the criminal law. This would put all the law in one place, rather than have it in several million separate cases which is confusing for judges. Not that that will ever be implemented. Unless I get into power.....(nudge nudge etc).

Blaming the judges for lower sentences is also laughable, when they are constrained by the extra legislation New Labour has introduced. The Judge in the case which provoked spluttering from the tabloids actually said he would have given a harsher sentence, but was unable to (partly because the defendant pleaded guilty, automatically knocking a third off his sentence).

I quite like the idea of the Daily Mirror's though:

The Daily Mirror is calling for a new "two strikes" rule to ensure people who commit a second serious sex attack on children are never released from jail

Not sure if I should agree with anything the Mirror says, but it seems sensible enough. Just let the judges carry on with their work! (and pass the Draft Criminal Code....)

-posted by Roy

For those of us with an irrational hatred of Noel Edmonds (oh come on - he is annoying), this was fairly amusing.

An orthopaedic consultant has found that Edmonds is suffering from repetitive strain injury in his right elbow from lifting the telephone too often on his new television game show, Deal or No Deal.

 And there's this:

Edmonds, 57, said: "The phone is pretty heavy.

Yes, of course it is. Poor guy.

If this weren't bad enough, I saw this whilst browsing bookshops in Huddersfield yesterday. Who in their right mind would buy such a book?

-posted by Roy

I was watching Newsnight with my 16-year old brother a couple of days ago, when they were discussing the fiasco over Thames Water, the company that has performed crap but still increases its profits.

This, of course, shows why the utilities should be nationalised, not run by private companies. The concept of competition doesn't work for utilities. A budding entrepreneur cannot set up another set of water pipes in people's houses, to give them a clear "choice" about which water company they use. The result is an entrenched monopoly, whose huge profits - of £346 million - mainly go to Thames Water's German owner RWE rather than to updating 160 year old pipes to cut down leaks. If Thames Water was nationalised, this £346 million could go to updating the pipes. Or to its customers, who are paying water bills 24% above inflation.

Having watched the Newsnight piece on Thames Water, my brother said, "More things should be nationalised, shouldn't they?" It was the happiest thing I had heard all day. Another convert!

-posted by Roy

Out of the dozens and dozens of cars I have seen sporting England flags, only two have been white vans. This would not seem to fit the picture of flag wavers our "liberal elite" tries to portray. Strange that, isn't it? Surely our liberal elite cannot be ignorant, wrong and misguided......? Perish the thought Roy. Slap on wrist.

-posted by Roy

This evening I saw a film called No More Tears Sister. Quick synopsis:

 A story of love, revolution, and betrayal, No More Tears Sister explores the price of truth in times of war. Set during the violent ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka over decades, the documentary recreates the courageous and vibrant life of renowned human rights activist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama. Mother, anatomy professor, author and symbol of hope, Rajani was assassinated at the age of thirty-five.

It was excellent. It weaves a tragic but inspiring tale of an educated, principled and idealistic woman who was killed for doing the right thing. She took a stand against both the authoritarian repressiveness of the Sri Lankan government,  with its de facto support to rascist Sinhalese gangs who attempted to ethnically cleanse the Tamil people from the island; and also the poisoned rebellion of the Tamil Tigers, people who had every right to take up arms to defend themselves, but whose fight for freedom was perverted by its methods and its indiscriminate targeting of civilians and recruitment of child soldiers.

While watching this film I was reminded of other figures on the democratic left throughout history. Men and women who could not stomach the bile spewing from much of the left wing intelligensia in support of genocidal countries like the USSR or Mao's China. Men and women who were disgusted by the apologies made for dictators like Castro or thugs like Guevera who, whilst looking good in a photo-op, supported an ideology directly responsible for the murder of countless millions.

They took up rhetorical arms against people who should have been on their side. People who should have been with them in their quest for liberty, social justice and peace. People who, instead, sung the praises of men like Stalin and Lenin. People who, in effect, in practice, were in bed with the most reactionary and hardline of the furthest of the far right.

Rajani Thiranagama can take her place alongside such people as George Orwell and those other heroes of the democratic left who stuck to their principles in the face of those who would seek to stifle debate and dissidence; instead they would always challenge authority and tyranny - whether it comes from the left or the right. From the government or the rebels. From the Sinhalese or the Tamils. From the incompetence of the Bush administration or the inhumanity of the Islamic Fascists.

She should be a hero to everyone who is against tyranny and for justice. Everyone who is against war for wars sake and for reasoned resolution of conflict. People who choose the use of debate and discussion over the perverted self righteousness of the mob of faith, class or opinion poll.

If you have the time and live near one of the few places that are showing it, I can't recommend this film enough. It sheds some light on one of the forgotten and unresolved conflicts of our time and it proves that, amidst the brutality of civil war, some people can rise above the melee and set an example which every person would do well to emulate.

-posted by Adam